Folic Acid May Reduce Risk Of Birth Defects

November 08, 1992|By Deborah Rissing Baurac.

Although excessive amounts of folic acid may have serious side effects, such as pernicious anemia, which can kill, a daily dose of 0.4 milligrams of the B vitamin taken by women of childbearing age can reduce the risk of two neural-tube birth defects.

This advice comes from the U.S. Public Health Service in Washington, D.C., and the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

The congenital defects are spina bifida, characterized by an imperfect exposure of part of the spinal cord, and anencephaly, a malformation of the skull, with the absence of all or part of the brain.

These defects disable or kill some 2,500 U.S. babies each year. The health services` recommendation follows studies of babies in four countries, including the United States.

The incidence of the defects could drop by one half, says Dr. David Erickson, chief of the birth defects and genetic diseases branch at the CDC.

The recommendation applies to all women of childbearing age able to conceive because ``more than half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned,`` says Dr. Godfrey Oakley, director of the division of birth defects and developmental disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control.